Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/32

 26 KLOPSTOCK the auspices of the king, the works of Leib- nitz relating to history and politics (5 vols., Hanover, 1864-'6), which is to be continued, though interrupted by the overthrow of the king of Hanover. KLOPSTOCK., Friedrich Gottlieb, a German poet, born in Quedlinburg, July 2, 1724, died in Hamburg, March 14, 1803. He was born m a small house at the foot of the castle hill in the Schlossplatz, recognizable by the two pillars which support its porch. His father was a public functionary in comfortable circumstances and his mother a woman of great piety. In 1740 he entered the seminary of Schulpforte. At that early age he was already possessed by the ambition of producing a great epic. The stirring incidents of the life of Henry the Fow- ler captivated for a time his imagination, as shown by some odes written by him in honor of that prince ; but after his attendance at the university of Jena (1745), religious enthusiasm led to the conception of his Messias (" Messiah"). In 1746 he went to Leipsic, then the resort of many literary men, who, after their secession from the pedantic school of Gottsclied, had formed in 1740 a poetical union and established an independent literary journal published in Bremen. Klopstock, in his ode entitled Win- golf, distinguishes Gellert, Rabener, Hagedorn, Gleim, and many others of his literary associ- ates of Leipsic, who as early as 1747 had rec- ognized him as able to inaugurate a new era in German poetry. The first three cantos of his "Messiah" were published in 1748, in the Bremen Literarische Zeitung, and the poem was eventually regarded as equal to the epics of Dante and Milton, especially by the reli- gious and female portion of the community. Gottsched, however, ridiculed what he called Klopstock's "seraphic spirit of fanaticism;" and his strictures on his dogmatism, his effem- inate and morbid tenderness, and his religious sentimentality were afterward confirmed by Lessing, although in a milder and more digni- fied spirit. Foremost among his admirers was Bodmer of Zurich, the opponent of Gottsched, the translator of Milton, and the head of a school of poets and religionists. From 1748 to 1750 Klopstock was employed as a teacher in the family of his relative Weiss in Langensalza, where he met the sister of his friend Schmidt, whom he celebrates in his odes as his beloved Fanny, but who did not reciprocate his affec- tion. In the summer of 1750 he went with his friend Sulzer to Zurich, which he left in the following year, in compliance with an in- vitation from the Danish prime minister Bern- storff, who offered him a pension of $300, in order to enable him to devote himself exclu- sively to the completion of his epic. On his way to Copenhagen he fell in love with Mar- garetha (Meta) Moller, the daughter of a Ham- burg merchant, whom he celebrates under the name of Cidli. In the Danish capital he was received with marked distinction, and intro- duced to the king, whom he accompanied on a journey to Holstein, on which occasion he spent some time with Meta, who became his wife in 1754. She died in 1758, in her 31st year. The loveliness of her character is appa- rent in her correspondence with Richardson, the English novelist, with Cramer, an intimate friend of Klopstock, and with her husband. (See "Memoirs of Frederick and Margaret Klopstock," English translation, by Elizabeth Smith, London, 1808 ; and her correspondence with Richardson, 1818.) Klopstock resided now alternately in Brunswick, Quedlinburg, and Blankenburg, till 1763, when he returned to Copenhagen. In 1771, on Bernstorff's with- drawal from the ministry, he went to Hamburg with the rank of a councillor of the Danish In 1792 he contracted a second mar- riage with Johanna Elisabeth von Dimpfel, whose first husband had been a nobleman named Windhem. He lived in Hamburg until his death, occasionally visiting literary friends in various parts of Germany. A pension was conferred upon him by the prince of Baden, and honor- ary citizenship by the French revolutionists. His death was looked upon in Germany as a national calamity, and his funeral was cele- brated with the pomp and solemnity generally accorded only to royal personages. The last two volumes of his "Messiah" and the greater portion of his odes appeared from 1769 to 1773. He wrote various grammatical and philological works and sacred dramas, or rather dramatic poems, chiefly turning upon characters of the Old Testament, as "The Death of Adam," " Solomon," and " David; " also several patri- otic dramas (Bardiete), in commemoration of the national hero Hermann. Novalis (Harden- berg) says Klopstock's works resemble trans- lations from some unknown poet, prepared by a skilful but unpoetical philologist. Goethe remarked in his conversations with Eckermann that German literature was greatly indebted to Klopstock, who was in advance of his times, but that the times had since advanced beyond Klopstock. Goethe in his autobiography also records his personal impression of Klopstock : " He was of small stature, but well built. His manners were grave and decorous, but free from pedantry. His address was intelligent and pleasing. On the whole, one might have taken him for a diplomatist. He carried him- self with the self-conscious dignity of a person who has a great moral mission to fulfil. He conversed with facility on various subjects, but rather avoided speaking of poetry and literary matters." His works have gone through many editions. Among the English translations of the " Messiah " is one into prose by Mrs. and Mr. Collyer, and a metrical translation appear- ed in London in 1825-'6. The "Death of Adam " and " Solomon " have also been trans- lated into English, as well as his " Odes," the latter by W. Nind (London, 1848). See also Miss Benger, "Klopstock and his Friends" (London, 1814) ; Morikofer, Klopstock in Zfa rich (Zurich, 1851) ; and a French essay on